The present invention relates to a method and relative device for loading and unloading parts on a machine tool, particularly for machining printed circuit boards.
Machine tools and machining centers are frequently equipped with automatic part loading and unloading devices. Such devices, however, are unsuitable for loading and unloading printed circuit boards, which require extremely careful handling, and, indeed, prior to machining, are normally packed in groups of a given number of boards held together and protected by two auxiliary plates.
One known device for loading and unloading packs of printed circuit boards provides for transferring the pack between a pack store and the work table of a drilling machine, and comprises a pack handling system the operating axes of which are necessarily controlled by a numerical control unit. In addition to the complex design and high cost of the above known device, it is also extremely cumbersome, by virtue of the space required both to the side of the drilling machine and for changing the pack store.